Took the Summer Off

Personal things took me away from this blog but lets see about my posts…

Chad Billingsley is leading the Dodgers.  Expect this for years to come.

Jon Niese is pitching for the Mets.  One out of his outings was strong.  He’s young so we’ll see how he works out.  The Mets threw him out there in the middle of a pennant race.  And that can’t be easy.  We’ll see how he adjusts.  I’m guessing that as a lefthander he will be given every chance to succeed.

Dexter Fowler played for the USA in China and did pretty well.  He’s struggling a bit in the majors after being called up.  He still has great potential, however, and will also be given every chance to succeed.

I posted about what you hear in the news not being the whole story…kinda ties to Manny and the screws he put to the Red Sox.  Here’s the problem I have with the whole trade to the Dodgers.  If he had stayed in Boston till the end of the year, the Sox (not Manny) could have exercised an option for next year.  Trading him negates that option and he becomes a free agent at the end of the year.

Well guess what folks, if he had stayed his former agent, Jeff Moorad, would have been paid a commission for next year.  If he is a free agent his new agent, Scott Boras, gets the commission for whatever contract he signs next year.

I’m sure that’s just a coincidence.

What I find ironic is that the option was for $20 million and in my opinion will not be worth that amount of money.  The Dodgers, who appear to be early leaders in the Manny sweepstakes, would be insane to pony up more than that for an extended period of time.  He’s 36, he’s Manny and the Dodgers have invested a lot of money in Andruw Jones and others.  To stay within a reasonable budget they will have to cast off a few pitchers such as Lowe.

With him they will win their division this year.  However, I suggest that they’d be better off spending that money on Sabathia or a combination of others to shore up that pitching staff.

Here’s betting they will bite on Manny.  If I had been the only one saying the Dodgers were crazy to spend that amount of money on Andruw Jones, you could say I was full of bs to say it now.  I’m not the only one now saying the Dodgers will be crazy enough to give Manny upwards of $21-$22 million.

Dexter Fowler

A name you’ll hear about in the majors in the next few years will be Dexter Fowler of the Colorado Rockies.  Baseball America’s 92nd best prospect and ranked as the Rockies’ third best, he is currently with the Tulsa Drillers of the AA Texas League.

Currently batting .302, what makes this outfielder so intriguing is that he did not take up switch hitting after he became a professional.  If you’ve only played the game as high as Little League you still know hard that is to accomplish.  He is hitting .417 against lefties as a natural righty and .274 against righthanders.

I was lucky enough to see him in high school and you could tell back then he was special.  Not that I’m saying my eye is superior to yours in seeing talent.  Instead, I’m saying that he was so physically superior to his peers that he stood out to the casual observer.  He bat speed was clearly faster, arm strength superior and quicker overall than anyone on the field.  This included several mlb draftees and D1 signees at the time.

From Milton High in Alpharetta, Georgia, to be that much better against the level of competition he was playing against is saying something.  And this is not contrary to an earlier post of mine about placing too much emphasis on tools instead of baseball success.  He had the baseball skills not just tools.  And that is my idea of a prospect.

It reminds me of when I was lucky enough to see Andruw Jones in low A ball.  He was clearly the best player on the field in the same way Fowler was the best.

An aside about Andruw.  It is kind of sad to see his skills deteriorate at such a young age.  Though I’ve seen enough of him in person to know it first hand, Jayson Stark outlines his fall eloquently in his book, The Stark Truth: The Most Overrated and Underrated Players in Baseball History” .

Though I think calling him the most overrated of all time is a bit harsh, it is clearly true of the last four years.  Seeing his speed at the age of 18 and then knowing what excess weight has done to him now, it makes one want to play “what if”.

Folks, I think he could have been the best ever.  Not just for a few years, but the best ever.  He had that kind of talent.

I rambled on about Andruw and here I was talking about Fowler.  I have a feeling that Fowler, having been recruited to play basketball in the Ivy League as well as by Miami for baseball, is smart enough to take care of his talents.